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The Gathering Storm
The stage of the struggle known as The Gathering Storm began on October 28, 1998, and ended on September 30, 2011. During this period, tensions between big media corporate interests and creative artists escalated, and various laws were proposed to castrate the free Internet, such as SOPA, PIPA, and others. Various government agencies from assorted nations also waged war to the best of their ability against the openness of the internet, for it was somthing which they feared above all else, something they couldn't control. It was to them... the sum of all fears. Overview The struggle entered its next stage on October 28, 1998 when the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) was signed into law by President Bill Clinton. Similar laws were soon passed all over the world, for example in the EU with the even more restrictive EU Copyright Directive and,in terms of overall e-commerce, the EU Electronic Commerce Regulations 2002. Over the ensuing years, many complaints cropped up over these laws from all sides. Six countries in the EU were in fact persecuted in the European Court of Justice for not immplementing the Copyright Directive within the allotted time limit by the European Commission, a board of 27 Commissioners who are not democratically elected and are supposed to represent the EU's interests instead of their respective nations. Not only are they not democratically elected, but they are chosen by the Parliaments, and any major party will be eager to plase their financial backers by choosing for Commissioner someone those backers like. These Commissioners therefore exist not for the People of the European Union but for the rich who bought up the major political parties of the European Union's countries. That must change if the Commissioners are to truly even ostensibly represent the EU's nations, they must be elected by referendum, and we must know more about these men and women before putting them into positions of such power. Notable Battles The Resistance-vs-Dictator battles were mostly skirmishes in this time period, however, a handful of major battles did occur. *MegaUpload Service Campaign *Tunisian Revolution *Egyptian Revolution *Libyan Revolution *Arab Spring Campaign *Pacific Nuclear Misinformation Campaign *Battle of the Kill Switch *Occupy Movement Campaign *Initial Signing of ACTA *First Battle of Italy Yes, we did take certain liberties with grouping the protests and uprisings, as only the three Arab and North African states with governments overthrown were listed as separate revolutions, the rest are grouped in the Arab Spring Campaign. However, the Internet-coordinated uprisings of those countries alerted the corrupt politicians of the rest of the world to the true might of the Internet, and so they feared us. Becuase they feared us, they pushed for ACTA to be signed and ideally ratified sooner. Only then can they take a breath of relief. Anti-Counterfeit Trade Agreement (ACTA) Interestingly, ACTA recieved almsot no media coverage in the last few years of this period, despite being proposed by Japan and the United States of America in 2006. It was negotiated in secret, not by part of any international body, by these two countries with Canada, the European Union, and Switzerland joining throughout 2006 and 2007. More countries joined the official but still secret negotiations in 2008 as well as an advisory board of large US corporations. These included the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the Business Software Alliance, Motion Picture Association of America, the Recording Industry Alliance of America, and other members of the International Intellectual Property Alliance. The treaty calls for an "ACTA Committee" which does not require public or legal supervision, to which industry representatives can have "consultatory input". These negotiators, even the official ones, were, by the way, not elected democratically. Leaks of information were few and far in between, and most people did not pay much attention to them, moving quickly on to irrelevant topics like the latest fashions, playing right into the hands of the Dictators. The Resistance today is only small and weak because it was not founded early enough, and only because public attention did not involve these things at all... More Details can be found on the ACTA page of this Wiki. Media Input 500px|right|This song is the anthem of the ResistanceInterestingly, a long time before this whole rotten mess really came toppling down, many members of the media industry were already against it. These were members of the same industries as those that participated in advising those non-elected officials who secretly conspired to create this heinous plan to establish absolute control over the world, for example, the video shown here may well serve as the theme and anthem of the Resistance given its content and the music video beign appropriate to the present situation. To quote a member of the band that did the video: "This is not rocket science. Instead of spending all this money litigating against kids who are the people they're trying to sell things to in the first place, they have to learn how to effectively use the Internet. For the artists, my ass...I didn't ask them to protect me, and I don't want their protection." He also said "I'm Very positive about the internet, Napster. I think it's a tremendous tool for reaching many more people than we ever could without it. When you release music you want it to be heard by people...Nothing is going to do that better than Napster. I can't tell you how many kids have come up to me and said, 'I downloaded a couple of tunes off Napster and I went out and bought the album.'...I don't really make money off of record sales anyway." (David Draiman, of the band Disturbed) To those who wish to purchase the album the song above, Land of Confusion, is in, it is Ten Thousand Fists by Disturbed. The lyrics can be found on Anthem of the Resistance. Conclusion To the Dictators, death is nothing, killing billions a mere statistic, but to lose power, to lose control, that is what they fear, and the Internet was sapping their control day by day, until one day the back-room dealings of the Dictators came to light in a move which shocked and rocked the world. ACTA was signed in Tokyo, Japan, and the next stage of the First Internet War, Blitzkrieg, began. They thought we would lie down and die when they signed ACTA. They thought wrong.